{"id":561,"date":"2008-12-29T15:01:20","date_gmt":"2008-12-29T23:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mozillalabs.com\/?p=561"},"modified":"2012-03-30T23:06:13","modified_gmt":"2012-03-30T23:06:13","slug":"labs-update-december-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/labs\/2008\/12\/labs-update-december-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"Labs Update &#8211; December 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-565\" src=\"http:\/\/labs.mozilla.com\/uploads\/2008\/12\/aboutlabs_newsletter_masthead.gif\" alt=\"aboutlabs_newsletter_masthead\" width=\"576\" height=\"100\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"right\"><strong>December 2008 Edition<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: large\">Concept Series <\/span> <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 10px;clear:both\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/labs.mozilla.com\/uploads\/2008\/10\/2896214572_167f4bef55_m1.jpg\" alt=\"University of Michigan Design Jam\" align=\"right\" \/><br \/>\n<strong> University of Michigan Design Jam<\/strong><br \/>\nThe University of Michigan&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.si.umich.edu\/\">School of Information<\/a> held their third <a href=\"http:\/\/sochi.cms.si.umich.edu\/?q=content\/browser-design-competition-winners\">Design Jam<\/a> as part of the <a href=\"http:\/\/labs.mozilla.com\/projects\/concept-series\/\">Concept Series<\/a>. This session took ideas generated at the <a href=\"http:\/\/sochi.cms.si.umich.edu\/?q=taxonomy\/term\/12\">two previous Design Jams<\/a> and had students work together in small teams to develop and refine <a href=\"http:\/\/sochi.cms.si.umich.edu\/?q=content\/browser-design-competition-winners\">detailed mockups<\/a>.<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 10px;clear:both\"><strong>Campus Outreach<\/strong><br \/>\nIn early January we&#8217;ll be launching a Concept Series Design Challenge that will provide new opportunities for students to exercise and refine their skills in user interface and user experience design. As part of the Challenge, students will be invited to participate in a new tutoring and mentorship program that we&#8217;re developing to increase the effectiveness and scale of the Labs effort.  More details on the Design Challenge will be posted soon, the first round will be focused on the question: &#8220;What would a windowless browser look like?&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>If your school is interested in participating, please contact us at <a href=\"mailto:conceptseries@mozilla.com\">conceptseries@mozilla.com<\/a>.<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 10px;clear:both\"><strong>Concepts of the Month <\/strong><br \/>\nFrom <a id=\"hl_c\" title=\"Tony Farndon\" href=\"http:\/\/spatialviews.com\/\">Tony Farndon<\/a>, an <a id=\"lxef\" title=\"experimental addon\" href=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/2437430\">experimental addon<\/a> that takes <a href=\"https:\/\/addons.mozilla.org\/en-US\/firefox\/addon\/8615\">Auto Dial<\/a> (i.e. add-on to view most visited bookmarks rather than a blank page whenever you open a new tab) and mashes it up with a <a href=\"http:\/\/webdev.stephband.info\/parallax.html\">3D parallax effect<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 10px;clear:both;padding: 10px 20px 10px 20px\"><object width=\"400\" height=\"250\"><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2437430&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1\" \/><\/object><\/div>\n<p>From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wait-till-i.com\/\">Chris Heilmann<\/a>, a <a href=\"http:\/\/icant.co.uk\/easy-youtube\/\">concept to improve Web accessibility of videos<\/a> by moving their controls out of the Flash object  and on to the Web page using <a href=\"https:\/\/addons.mozilla.org\/en-US\/firefox\/addon\/748\">Greasemonkey<\/a> scripts.<\/div>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: large\">Experiments<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 10px;clear:both\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/labs.mozilla.com\/wp-content\/themes\/labs08\/gfx\/icon_firefox-personas_M.gif\" alt=\"Personas\" align=\"left\" \/><br \/>\n<strong>Personas<\/strong><br \/>\nWe&#8217;ve released a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.getpersonas.com\/\">beta version<\/a> of Personas this week that fully supports Firefox 3.x and includes a new directory of designs along with a revamped server architecture that&#8217;s been designed to scale to millions of users.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re also working toward a 1.0 release with new content and capabilities in January, and a plan for potential inclusion of a Personas-like feature in a future Firefox release.<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 10px;clear:both\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/labs.mozilla.com\/wp-content\/themes\/labs08\/gfx\/icon_snowl_M.gif\" alt=\"Snowl\" align=\"left\" \/><br \/>\n<strong>Snowl<\/strong><br \/>\nWe&#8217;ve <a href=\"http:\/\/www.melez.com\/mykzilla\/2008\/11\/third-and-final-preview-of-snowl-02.html\">released the third and final preview<\/a> release of Snowl. It includes an updated &#8220;river of news&#8221; with many improvements suggested by <a id=\"ttfc\" title=\"Alex Faaborg\" href=\"http:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/faaborg\/\">Alex Faaborg<\/a> and others.<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 10px;clear:both;padding: 10px 20px 10px 20px\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.melez.com\/mykzilla\/uploaded_images\/Picture-1-789444.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/div>\n<p>It also supports sending Twitter updates in addition to receiving them via an interface built into the river and stream views. Just click on the &#8220;write a message&#8221; icon to expose it:<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 10px;clear:both;padding: 10px 20px 10px 20px\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.melez.com\/mykzilla\/uploaded_images\/Picture-4-778682.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 20px;clear:both\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/labs.mozilla.com\/uploads\/2008\/12\/ubiquity1.png\" alt=\"Ubiquity\" align=\"left\" \/><br \/>\n<strong>Ubiquity<\/strong><br \/>\nWe&#8217;ve released a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toolness.com\/wp\/?p=386\">release candidate<\/a> for the next major update to <a href=\"https:\/\/wiki.mozilla.org\/Labs\/Ubiquity\">Ubiquity<\/a>. This release features significantly improved performance and adds skinning support.<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 10px;clear:both;padding: 10px 20px 10px 20px\"><object width=\"400\" height=\"225\"><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2604372&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1\" \/><\/object><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 10px;clear:both\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/labs.mozilla.com\/wp-content\/themes\/labs08\/gfx\/icon_weave_M.gif\" alt=\"Weave\" align=\"left\" \/><br \/>\n<strong>Weave<\/strong><br \/>\nWe&#8217;ve released a <a href=\"https:\/\/labs.mozilla.com\/forum\/comments.php?DiscussionID=4890\">release candidate<\/a> for the next major update to <a href=\"http:\/\/labs.mozilla.com\/2007\/12\/introducing-weave\/\">Weave<\/a> that includes significantly improved performance and bookmarks &amp; history support for the new <a href=\"https:\/\/wiki.mozilla.org\/Labs\/Weave\/0.3\/API\">0.3 server architecture<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 10px;clear:both;padding: 10px 20px 10px 20px\"><object width=\"400\" height=\"225\"><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2569344&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1\" \/><\/object><\/div>\n<p>We&#8217;re also introducing preliminary support for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mozilla.org\/projects\/fennec\/1.0a2\/releasenotes\">Fennec<\/a> based upon\u00a0Jono DiCarlo&#8217;s detailed <a href=\"http:\/\/people.mozilla.com\/~jdicarlo\/weave-fennec-ui.html\">proposal<\/a>.<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 10px;clear:both\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/labs.mozilla.com\/wp-content\/themes\/labs08\/gfx\/icon_prism_M.gif\" alt=\"Prism\" align=\"left\" \/><br \/>\n<strong>Prism<\/strong><br \/>\nBased upon the success of the <a href=\"http:\/\/labs.mozilla.com\/2008\/03\/major-update-to-prism-first-prototype-of-browser-integration\/\">Prism<\/a> experiment, we&#8217;re now working on a plan to uplift a Prism-like feature into a future version of Firefox. You can follow the early specification work on the <a href=\"https:\/\/wiki.mozilla.org\/Labs\/PrismFeature\">Mozilla Wiki<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/developer.mozilla.org\/en\/Prism\">Prism experiment and platform<\/a> itself will continue in its exploration independent of this effort. If you&#8217;re new to the concept of site-specific browsers, be sure to check out the <a href=\"https:\/\/addons.mozilla.org\/en-US\/firefox\/addon\/6665\">Prism for Firefox<\/a> add-on.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>December 2008 Edition Concept Series University of Michigan Design Jam The University of Michigan&#8217;s School of Information held their third Design Jam as part of the Concept Series. This session took ideas generated at the two previous Design Jams and &hellip; <a class=\"go\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/labs\/2008\/12\/labs-update-december-2008\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[4863],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}